I read through the curriculum, and from what I could tell, there was one statement out of over a hundred pages of black history that people took issue with.

That statement had nothing to do with white-washing, it was pretty much the "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade" analogy. Former slaves were dealt a terrible hand, yet many of them were able to build a decent life for themselves despite the racism they definitely experienced after emancipation.

It's amazing to me that less than 100 years after the Civil Rights movement, we had a black US President, and 100 years before the Civil Rights movement we were finally freeing slaves. We went from black people being legally considered less than a person, to being second class citizens, to running the country. We still have a ways to go, but we've made huge strides.